Divided and Reunited
by Drogna
Summary: Sequel to The End of Everything. Trip goes to the Columbia but it isn't long before he finds himself back on the ship he wants to leave.
1. Divided

Divided

Disclaimer: Enterprise doesn't belong to me, if it did then I wouldn't have cancelled it after only four series.

Rating: PG-13

Archive: yes, just ask first.

Spoilers: United, The Aenar, Affliction, Divergence and most of Season Three.

AN: Sequel to The End of Everything. Set after The Aenar and during Affliction and Divergence.

Small plug for the Virtual Fifth Season, we're still looking for writers and episodes. There is now a VS5 Yahoo group set up which has all the details of the story arc etc. See my profile for more details.

* * *

"What the hell was he thinking?" shouted Archer. 

Doctor Phlox had just told Captain Archer that Commander Tucker would not be on duty for the next forty-eight hours. He was supposed to be recovering from radiation poisoning but Trip being Trip had ignored Doctor's orders. He'd helped T'Pol put together a telepresence chair, which Phlox had allowed him to do on the understanding that he take time to rest afterwards, but instead of taking time off he'd worked a straight twenty-four hours before almost collapsing from exhaustion. Phlox had chased him out of Engineering and put him to bed, with instructions not to appear in Engineering for at least forty-eight hours.

Lieutenant Reed and Doctor Phlox exchanged a look.

"He was thinking that he'd just asked to be transferred and he needed to get his mind off it, sir," said Reed.

"When Commander Tucker is upset he tends to work," said Phlox.

"He promised me that he wouldn't do this again," said Archer, more quietly.

"Again?" asked Reed.

"It's not the first time he's worked himself to the point of exhaustion. He broke up with one of his girlfriends. I don't even remember her name now. He worked a week straight before he keeled over. Didn't sleep. Didn't eat. I made him promise that he'd come and talk to me if he ever got that upset by something again."

"For someone as outgoing as he is, he really doesn't talk about things," said Reed, although he remembered their brief conversation whilst in Decon about a certain Vulcan officer. Trip had never suggested that he might put in for a transfer though.

"His body is still weak from the radiation poisoning and it can't take this sort of abuse," said Phlox.

"He wanted the transfer and I gave it to him. He should have been pleased," said Archer, but Trip's face when he asked for the transfer had told him that he didn't really want to go. It was one of the reasons that he'd pushed the point, calling in their friendship to try to make Trip reconsider, but it hadn't helped. "Have either of you got any idea why he wants this transfer?"

"He hasn't confided in me," said Reed, which he knew was a half-truth at best, but Trip obviously didn't want his Captain to know about his feelings for T'Pol. Reed respected his friend's wish for privacy and wouldn't discuss something that he didn't really have the full facts about.

Phlox just said nothing. Archer was certain the doctor had some idea why Trip wanted to leave but he had no intention of giving it up.

"I've tried talking to him and he wouldn't say anything," said Archer.

"Isn't there any way that we can persuade him not to leave?" asked Reed.

"When Trip sets his mind to something there's no way to stop him. He's as stubborn as they come. Especially if he thinks he's doing the right thing for everyone concerned," said Archer. "He asked me as his friend to put this transfer through and I can't deny his request. I thought about denying it on manpower grounds but I couldn't make it fly if he wants to appeal it. We're all sorry to lose him but there's no good reason for me to turn him down."

"I just think he's making a big mistake," said Reed.

"So do I, Malcolm. So do I," replied Archer.

* * *

T'Pol had been searching for Trip all day. She strongly suspected that in fact he was avoiding her. He was always busy when she came down to Engineering, which was not surprising considering he would be leaving the ship that evening and he had to finish up any projects that he was working on. What had been unusual was the way that his crew had been ensuring that no one got as far as Trip's office. 

"The Commander's got a lot of work to do before he leaves and can't be disturbed," said Lieutenant Hess in no uncertain terms, and dealt with the information that T'Pol needed herself.

The same thing had been happening all week, in fact ever since the Captain had informed her of Trip's decision to leave Enterprise. Every time T'Pol came up with an excuse to visit Engineering she would be deflected by Lieutenant Hess or one of Trip's other officers. It was becoming frustrating, but she knew she had to talk to him before he left. She couldn't simply let him walk away, it wasn't in her nature, even though it might actually be the best thing that she could do.

She didn't understand why Trip leaving was causing her so much difficulty. They weren't in a relationship. She had slept with him once, and they had both agreed that it was not a good idea to repeat that encounter. At least she thought that they had both agreed, but now she was beginning to wonder if Trip had been as positive in his assertion as she had. She was even beginning to wonder if she had really been as positive as she thought she was.

She finally tracked down Trip in his quarters. He stood looking out at the Columbia, his bag half packed on his bed.

"She's a thing of beauty," said Trip.

"Columbia's virtually identical to Enterprise," T'Pol replied, refusing to let such an emotional statement stand.

"A good Engineer can see the differences," Trip said wistfully, and T'Pol knew he meant that Enterprise was the superior ship. Even being a Vulcan she could see the wrench it was for him to leave. Enterprise was the ship on which he had fine tuned the engines, carried out hours of work to make her run more smoothly. Only Enterprise could travel continuously at warp five point two, Columbia's maximum was still warp five and a rough warp five at that. The experiment that had landed Trip in a coma had meant that Enterprise was now faster and better than her sister ship.

"You coming to the mess hall later? My going away party." Trip changed the subject, as if it hurt him to talk about the differences between the ship he was leaving and the one he was joining.

"I don't understand the logic behind this transfer, you're not being promoted…"

Trip cut in before T'Pol could continue. "You think I'm doing this to advance my career?"

No she didn't think that at all, but she couldn't voice her suspicions. "You wouldn't leave Captain Archer without sufficient reason."

"For one thing this is a new challenge. It took me a year to fine tune Enterprise. I figure I can do the same for Captain Hernandez in half the time. She needs a Chief Engineer who's been out there, has the experience." Trip shrugged in self-deprecation, despite the fact that T'Pol knew he was underselling his own expertise. She was also certain that he was lying to her. Maybe he had convinced himself that was the reason he was leaving, but she was certain that she knew him better than that.

She had hoped to avoid asking him directly but there was only one way that she could deal with this situation and that was to be blunt. "Are you leaving because of me?"

"Starfleet's approved the transfer," said Trip, avoiding answering while he desperately thought about how to reply.

"You didn't answer my question." She was not allowing him to wriggle out of this so easily.

"This may come as a shock," began Trip, already regretting the words he was about to say. "But not everything in my life revolves around you." He couldn't have been more surprised when T'Pol blinked, said nothing and left his quarters. She wasn't supposed to care why he was leaving and it shouldn't have been a shock, or even mattered, to her that she wasn't that important to him. Yes, it was a lie, but one that he'd hoped would make it clear that this wasn't her fault. Instead he'd ended up hurting her feelings and lying to someone he respected. He stood for a second wondering how he'd allowed things to get this bad between them. How had he allowed it to get so far that he had to leave to be able to move on.

He wondered why he couldn't say to her everything that he felt. Why couldn't he tell her that he was in love with her? And yes, god damn it, he was leaving because of her, because he couldn't work with her distracting him, and he couldn't stand by and watch while she put herself in danger. She meant so much to him but it was obvious that he meant nothing to her. He was a friend perhaps, nothing else. He needed to remember that if he was ever going to move on and forget his feelings for T'Pol.

* * *

The going away party in the mess hall was well attended but definitely subdued. Trip was well liked on the ship, especially by his Engineering crew and he would be missed. T'Pol was notable by her absence. 

Captain Archer tapped on a glass and everyone was quiet.

"I know Trip doesn't want to make a big deal out of all this so I'll keep my remarks short. I think it's safe to say that no one knows Enterprise like you do. I couldn't have wished for a better Chief Engineer and my loss is Captain Hernandez' gain. I know that you'll whip Columbia into shape in no time and the latest addition to the fleet will be in good hands. This crew has been to hell and back over the past few years, with everything that we've seen and done, and if it hadn't been for a safe pair of hands in Engineering then I know there are some situations we might never have got out of. You may not be the most conventional Engineer in the fleet but as far as I'm concerned you sure as hell are the best." Archer raised his glass. "To Commander Tucker, one hell of a Chief Engineer."

The assembled party raised their glasses and repeated the toast while Trip blushed furiously.

"Speech!" shouted Hess, and her call was followed by more.

Trip was shaking his head but Archer motioned for him to go ahead and say something. Everyone again quietened down as Trip started to speak.

"I was hoping to avoid this," said Trip, not sure if he just meant giving the speech or that he was leaving. "I'm not one for long goodbyes or long speeches. I've been privileged to work with one of the best crews in Starfleet and Columbia has a tough act to follow. I've made a lot of friends here and I'm real sorry to be leaving you all. It's been an honour serving with every single one of you." Trip paused and raised his glass. "To Enterprise and all who sail in her."

"To Enterprise," repeated the room.

Lieutenant Reed came over to Trip. "Nice toast, Commander."

"Thanks, Malcolm," said Trip, sadly. "This is all being a lot harder than I thought it would be. Starfleet's supposed to be all about going where you're needed. I guess I let myself get too attached."

"I could say the same thing. I don't think I'd want to leave Enterprise yet," said Reed. "I never thought I'd say this, but I've made too many friends here."

Archer wandered over and joined his two officers. "I hope that wasn't too sentimental for you, Trip."

"You could have said a lot worse. I was expecting you to drag out all those embarrassing moments that you've been storing up," said Trip.

"I'm saving them for when you make Captain," replied Archer with an amused smile. "When's the shuttle due?"

"In about fifteen minutes, so I should be getting down to the shuttle bay," said Trip.

Archer held out his hand for Trip to shake but pulled him into a hug at the last moment. "If you don't stay in touch Commander then I'll be having words with your CO."

"Yes, sir," replied Trip.

"That goes for the rest of us too," said Reed holding out his own hand to be shaken vigorously. Trip didn't try to hug the Englishman, knowing that it wouldn't go down too well if he did. "It won't be the same ship without you, Commander."

Trip nodded deprecatingly, a small smile on his lips and turned to leave his home of the past three and half years.

* * *

To say that Columbia was different would have been an understatement. Despite the fact that it had almost exactly the same layout as Enterprise, it was as unfamiliar as it would have been had Trip never stepped on board an NX class ship. Everything was just slightly different, right down to the emblem on the Captain's dinning room wall. They'd tried to include a few upgrades in Columbia's design from the original specifications for Enterprise and that made her even more unfamiliar, a pale imitation of Enterprise. All of the differences just reminded Trip of Enterprise and how much he missed her. It was like breaking up with a girlfriend only to go out with someone that looked almost exactly like them, but didn't have their personality. 

Columbia was not Enterprise and he had to get used to that. It didn't have the same soul that Enterprise did. It didn't feel like home in the same way that Enterprise did. Trip had spent years getting used to Enterprise's quirks. He remembered how when you changed the relays on junction ten they stuck slightly if they weren't aligned to the left by a couple of microns, and the scratch in the paintwork that he never had got around to fixing, and the week old intermittent fault that no one had been able to track down on sensor array two. It was all someone else's problem now and he hoped that they were taking good care of his baby. It really was hard to let go. His engine had been a thing of beauty, incomparable to any other because it was his.

In comparison, the Engine on Columbia was in sorry shape. Whoever had been in charge of putting the thing together hadn't been too careful about calibration and the dilithium matrix was well out of alignment. The field stabilisers and the injector assembly were in an equally bad state and would probably need to be taken apart and rebuilt before they'd work to his satisfaction. He was beginning to realise that he'd discovered a hell of a lot working on Enterprise for four years and just how much he ignored the specs laid down in the manual. It hadn't seemed like he'd changed that much on Enterprise but he guessed it had all been done over a long period of time. His own Engineering team knew Enterprise as well as he did and never had to ask why the dilithium matrix should be aligned to within point three variance. He'd learned with his crew and now he was having to break in a new one who didn't have the benefit of four years on Enterprise. Just another thing he'd have to get used to.

He worked his new crew hard, expecting as much from them as he did from himself and finding it nice to be so busy that he didn't have to time to think about Enterprise or the missing Doctor Phlox. Unfortunately Captain Hernandez was a good Captain and after she'd reminded him that he should have reported to her on his arrival and that he would need to change the shoulder patch on his uniform, she invited him to dinner. Trip couldn't turn down his new Captain's invitation, so he had no choice but to accept, despite the fact that he would rather have just kept on working.

Over dinner he realised just how sharp his new Captain was. She asked him why he'd decided to accept the transfer and was obviously not taken in by his answer. She had seen that damned interview that he'd done where he'd told the interviewer that he couldn't see himself serving on any other starship. He knew from the look in her eyes that she'd worked it out where Jonathan Archer hadn't. She understood that he'd left Enterprise because he'd been hurt by someone. Archer was a great Captain, but he wasn't always the best at reading people, something which Trip had exploited in the past. He was going to have to tread more carefully with his new Captain.

His bizarre day dream about T'Pol definitely didn't help his feeling of being displaced any and he was certain that his crew now thought he was completely mad. He never used to day dream in Engineering. It was looking more and more like he'd made the right decision when he left Enterprise. He hoped that T'Pol wouldn't continue to occupy his thoughts. The distance he'd put between them, literally and metaphorically, was supposed to make things better. Instead he was missing her more and nothing he did seemed to help.

He finally admitted to himself that he was homesick for Enterprise and T'Pol, but despite everything, he was just as proud when Columbia cleared the docks as when they'd taken Enterprise out for the first time.


	2. Reunited

Reunited

Spoilers: United, The Aenar, Affliction, Divergence and most of Season Three.

AN: This part is set after Affliction and during Divergence.

* * *

When the call came through from Enterprise, Trip had been down in Engineering working on the maintenance schedule for Columbia. At the moment he had no idea who would work best with whom so he'd just have to put some teams together and see how they did. He would fine tune it later when he had a better idea of everyone's strengths. 

"Commander Tucker to the Bridge," came the call and he immediately had a feeling that something bad was happening. He dropped the padd he was working on and ran for the bridge. He arrived to see Captain Archer on the view screen and Captain Hernandez asking for a rendezvous time with Enterprise from her helmsman.

"We can be with them in thirty minutes, Ma'am," said the helmsman.

"What's the problem, Captain?" asked Trip. He was unsure which Captain would give him an answer.

Archer spoke from the view screen. "We've been trying to track Phlox down and had some trouble with the Klingons. They boarded Enterprise and altered our Engineering subroutines. They created a malfunction in the intermix chamber, plasma pressure is rising and the anti-matter flow regulators are locked open," said Archer. "If we drop below warp five then the reactor's going to explode. We can't maintain warp five point two forever and we've got less than an hour before the reactor breaches. We're out of options and I was hoping that as the man who knows Enterprise's warp engine best you might have something that we haven't thought of."

"Damn, Captain, you sure know how to put a man on the spot," said Trip. He was already thinking frantically. There was only one way to deal with this in the time available that he could think of. "You need to restore the subroutines, but to do that you have to drop out of warp and if you do that then the reactor will breach. I can think of one way of doing it and it isn't going to be pretty. The only problem is that I'm on the wrong ship, I need to be over there."

"You can't talk us through it?" said Archer.

"I could but I'm not sure we've got the time, or even if Kelby's up to it. To do what I'm planning you'd have to know the engine like the back of your hand and Kelby hasn't even been there a week."

"That's all well and good, gentlemen," said Hernandez, "but we can't transport you over while Enterprise is at warp and there's no way for us to dock."

"There's another way of getting me over there. Lieutenant Reed and I once discussed ship to ship transfers via tether at warp speed. He was part of a Security team that carried one out and knows the procedures. I don't think its ever been done at warp five but it can't be that different from lower speeds."

"I'll talk to Malcolm," said Archer, a look passing across his face that Trip nearly missed but couldn't identify. "We may have no choice but to try it. I'll get back to you in five minutes. Archer out."

The screen went blank and Hernandez turned to her Chief Engineer. "You do know what you're doing, don't you?"

"I've got a good idea Ma'am," replied Trip.

"What you're proposing is incredibly dangerous. If the tether were to snap while you're making your way across then you'd be thrown out into space at warp five. We'd most likely never find you again and the speed alone could kill you. That's before we even get into the situation that you'd be going into."

"I understand the risks, Ma'am, but there's eighty-seven people on Enterprise that are going to die unless I do this," said Trip. Those eighty-seven people included some very good friends. Those eighty-seven people included T'Pol and he'd give his life for hers alone without a second thought. The realisation that he really meant that shook him a little. No matter how hard he tried to leave Enterprise it seemed that fate wanted him back there. It looked like he was going to have to deal with working in close proximity to T'Pol one last time before he could move on. Unless of course this was the last time he worked with her, full stop.

"Just checking, Commander," said Hernandez. "Get yourself down to the launch bay and get your EVA suit on. I have a feeling that your former CO will be in touch very shortly to let us know that your expertise is needed."

"Yes, Ma'am," replied Trip, exiting the bridge as quickly as he could.

* * *

T'Pol watched as the two ships came within 50 metres of one another. Outwardly she was completely calm as the two warp fields collided, before she made her way down to Engineering. She readied everything, all the time knowing that Trip was now on his way, suspended between the two ships on only a thin cable. A shudder let her know that something was wrong and the warp field was fluctuating again. She heard Travis saying that the distance between them and Columbia was increasing and did her best to divert power to stabilise the warp field so that they could maintain position. 

She couldn't deny the worry she felt for Trip as he traversed the void between the two ships and she wished it was her at the other end of the tether waiting for him. She knew that if they couldn't get the warp field under control then it could very well be Trip's death. She tried diverting more power but it made no difference the problem was not how much power the warp field had but the instability being caused within it.

In the back of her mind she could feel a mirror of the fear that she knew Trip was experiencing. He was trying to be brave and concentrate on the tether but it was hard for him not to feel alone out among the stars. Suddenly with shock she realised that this wasn't just her imagining the feelings that he might be having, she was actually having them. Trip appearing in her meditation suddenly made a lot of sense. She knew that now was not the time to deal with this, so instead she concentrated on feeding back to Trip that he was not alone, reassuring him that he would make it. He doubted that he would even realise where the reassurance that she was sending him was coming from, but it would be there none the less.

"T'Pol to the bridge, it's not working the field is still fluctuating." Trip was depending on her and she was failing him. She kept trying while she waited anxiously to hear the news that Trip had made it safely to Enterprise.

* * *

Trip had never been so nervous about a space walk. He was trying to think of it like that, just another routine space walk like hundreds of others that he'd done. Malcolm was doing the hard part, firing the tether and monitoring the tension in the line. 

The tether zoomed past Trip. "Nice shooting, Malcolm." He gave the tether one last look before he attached his harness to the line. No going back now. "Tucker to Captain Hernandez, I'm heading out."

"Quick as you can Commander," replied Hernandez as another shudder shook Columbia, passed on via Enterprise's deteriorating warp field.

Trip took a deep breath and he began lowering himself towards Enterprise. He reached the halfway point and took a second to look at the stars and suddenly he felt very alone and afraid. Fear gripped him for just a second before he suddenly had a picture of T'Pol calling him towards Enterprise and telling him that everything was going to be fine. He completed his turn over at the mid point and began to move "upwards", although it was all relative to the position of the ships, there was no real up or down in space.

"You're doing fine, Trip," said Reed but Trip could hear the tension in his voice and knew not everything was fine. Reed was concerned about something but he wasn't going to burden Trip with any more problems while he was dangling on the end of a cable. Trip could feel more shudders move down through the line.

"Don't mean to be a pest, but could someone tell me what's going on?"

"You're almost here, Trip, keep going," said Reed in the same strained tone of voice. Things were not good. Again suddenly T'Pol's image was in his mind telling him not to worry and to move more quickly. He could almost see the warp engine controls that she seemed to be looking at. If those readings were right and not just his imagination then things were worse than he'd thought. He concentrated on the tether again and began to move faster.

Then suddenly Reed was shouting "The tether's at its limit. Hurry up!"

He could feel the tether give slightly as he moved up, it was being pulled away from its mount by the force being exerted between the two ships. Then he could see Malcolm waiting for him and he put on a final burst of speed. He made it to level with the deck and Malcolm was detaching him and grabbing onto him at the same time, working as quickly as he could. They were both aware of the fact that if the tether went now, while he was still attached to the line, it would take Trip with it. Malcolm finally had the harness unclipped and Trip noticed him look up before he was suddenly being pushed out of the way as the tether mount came crashing down.

Trip breathed a sigh of relief. "Permission to come aboard?"

Malcolm just gave him one of his looks, half way between relief and indulgence at the joke, before moving to the controls to close the bay doors and let the Captain know that he was on board. Trip then explained his full plan to the Captain. It sounded impossible even to him, but he knew this ship and her engine, he was confident that it could be done.

Reed and he climbed out of their EVA suits as quickly as they could. Reed handed Trip a spare uniform in his size and momentarily Trip felt pleased that the uniform bore the shoulder patch of Enterprise. It made it almost seem as if he was being welcomed back home. He wished that he really was back for good and the Columbia shoulder patch he was becoming accustomed to wearing just reminded him that Enterprise wasn't his ship any more.

When they left the shuttle bay, Trip was surprised to see two MACO guards waiting for them. When Reed explained, or rather didn't explain, why they were there, he was even more surprised.

"I leave the ship for one week and the whole place goes to hell in hand basket," he muttered to himself as strode down the corridor to engineering. Of course the first person that he saw when he entered Engineering was T'Pol.

"Fancy meeting you here," he said as he went to get the tools he'd need for what he was about to do. "Intermix pressure?"

"Fifteen twenty seven," replied T'Pol, looking about as stressed as she ever did. He got the impression that she was not happy to see him. And that pressure reading was way too high.

"Field variance?"

"Eighty seven milli-cochranes."

Ouch, thought Trip. This was all very bad. "Someone hasn't been taking very good care of my engine."

"Speak with the Klingons," retorted T'Pol. Trip was sure he was right now, she was definitely not pleased to see him. He turned to start on the cold start process.

"What are you doing?" asked T'Pol.

"You might want to take notes. I'm about to perform a manual shut down and restart in less than two minutes." He climbed onto the top of the warp core, remembering that the last time he'd had to do something like this, he'd ended up in sick bay.

"That's not possible."

T'Pol was always the optimist, as usual, thought Trip sarcastically. "Watch me."

After that everything was a blur of activity as they merged warp fields with Columbia and Trip battled to shut everything down and then bring it back up again before Columbia's warp field failed. Even though he was dealing with a crisis, he felt that this was right. He was giving orders to his crew again and fixing his engine. When he pushed the final relay back home he knew that it had worked before the power even came back, that was how well he knew this engine.

"Engineering to bridge, subroutines have been purged," said T'Pol. Even she sounded relieved.

Trip let out a sigh of relief. He caught T'Pol's eye for just a second and he was sure that he saw something there that hadn't been there before. He didn't have time to think about it further though, the Captain was congratulating him and he needed to make sure that Enterprise would continue to be okay. He looked back towards T'Pol and felt something that he hadn't believed to be possible. He felt happy and he was almost certain that she was happy to have him back too, except that couldn't possibly be true. Especially after the welcome that she'd given him.

He needed to find some way to stay on Enterprise a bit longer. He had to work out if what he thought he'd seen in T'Pol was actually there. He wondered if Kelby would mind a little help. After all, those Klingon subroutines could have done who knows what to the warp engine.

* * *

Archer lay on his biobed feeling a little sorry for himself. The Klingon virus had been hard on his body and he wasn't getting any younger. He had been lying there trying to think of a way that he could persuade Trip to stay on Enterprise. It was as if he'd been given a second chance with his Chief Engineer and he intended on grabbing it with both hands. If Trip had been on Enterprise during their most recent engineering crisis then things might not have become as desperate as they had. He'd already spoken to Captain Hernandez about his plan and assuming that Trip agreed, she was amenable to an extended leave of absence for her Chief Engineer. Archer suspected that she already knew that Trip would probably end up coming back to Enterprise. Whatever had hurt him enough to leave needed to be dealt with but he'd seemed a lot happier when he'd last seen him. Archer wondered what had changed. Maybe he'd just needed a bit of distance. 

Trip wandered into sick bay. "Hey Captain, how're you feeling?"

"Better," said Archer simply.

"Good," said Trip. "I thought I should bring you down the repair schedule. It could have a been a lot worse, everything's minor, there's just a lot of it."

"Actually, I was hoping I could persuade you to stay a little longer. We're short handed and we need to get moving again."

"I don't know if Captain Hernandez will be happy with you stealing her Chief Engineer from her. We're short handed on Columbia too you know."

"But at the moment Columbia's in better shape than we are. She's already agreed, Trip. It's up to you, if you want to stay on a little longer, I'd be glad to have you."

"You know, I was actually coming down here to ask if you'd mind taking in a stray Chief Engineer for a bit. I thought Kelby could do with a hand."

"Then it's all settled."

Archer smiled at his former Chief Engineer and Trip returned it. One of Phlox's assistants came over to the Captain's biobed to perform the final set of scans before he was discharged and Trip stood waiting while they were completed. At that moment T'Pol and Hernandez decided to join them and Archer noted the way that Trip's eyes lit up when he saw T'Pol. The final piece of the puzzle clicked into place.

I may be slow, thought Archer, but I get there in the end. Mystery solved. Sparks had been flying for years between his Science Officer and his Chief Engineer, he wondered why he hadn't spotted their obvious attraction sooner. The question was could the two of them sort it out before Trip transferred back to Columbia. Starfleet didn't like playing musical chairs with its officers, but now Trip was back on Enterprise it would definitely be easier to keep him here. Plus if Archer had anything to do with it, he'd be making sure that Trip didn't even think about leaving again.


End file.
